Chance the Rapper Is Working on His Debut Album

Chance the Rapper revealed during a recent interview with DJ Semtex for BBC Radio 1Xtra that he is working on his debut album. When Semtex asked Chance what will come after Coloring Book, he said, “What is next? I'll probably put out an album, that's what I've been thinking about, just between us.” He continued, “I don't know exactly the format every time when I'm making something but a lot of times I have an idea, and I think what I'm working on right now is an album.”

Chance also noted that his “mixtapes have been confused for albums for a long time” and that his next project will be different. He stressed that his next project will be “something that you can consider an album” but “it might not be physical, or a disc or something, but an album that comes with its own live show is important.” Below, you can hear him discuss this (starting at 26:00) and read a full transcript of his remarks.

Elsewhere in the interview, Chance talked about his relationship with Kanye, and the process of working on Life of Pablo. He said meeting Kanye was “a theme of [his] career for the first two years,” and revealed that the track that eventually became “Ultralight Beam” was originally intended for a future G.O.O.D. Friday release.

He also talked about his family’s relationship with President Obama, visiting the White House, Kanye’s 2020 presidential chances, and the current political climate in America. On Donald Trump’s presidential victory, Chance said he knew that “Trump was going to win” and “anybody in the world who's surprised by the election of Donald Trump has been ignorant of racism, and the tides and patterns of American history and world history.” He also said Trump’s recent critical comments of Hamilton“pissed” him off, and that both Dave Chappelle’s “SNL” monologue and the Hamilton cast’s comments were “out of fear.”

“What is next? I'll probably put out an album, that's what I've been thinking about, just between us. I don't know exactly the format every time when I'm making something but a lot of times I have an idea, and I think what I'm working on right now is an album. But I also think it’s in two parts. I think that when I'm making music usually, I'm writing it because I want you to listen to in the car, and I'm also thinking of the day we finally meet and I get to play it for you, in bunch of a front of people, and we get to sing along. So, in part, yeah I want to make an album. My mixtapes have been confused for albums for a long time so it has to be something different. Something that you can consider an album, it might not be physical, or a disc or something, but an album that comes with its own live show is important.”